Last night, Notre Dame got absolutely obliterated by Alabama in the BCS title game. Just like I said they would. More than once.

This should have come as a surprise to exactly no one.

No matter how anyone tries to hype up Notre Dame's regular season schedule, there's not a chance in hell that they actually proved that they deserved their #1 ranking.

They stumbled into the #1 spot by default, because great SEC football teams beat other great SEC football teams.

Alabama's only loss was to fellow SEC powerhouse Texas A&M.
Georgia's only losses were to Alabama and South Carolina, both from the SEC.
Texas A&M lost a couple nail-biters to fellow SEC schools Florida and LSU.
South Carolina's only losses were also to Florida and LSU.
Before losing their bowl games, Florida and LSU had only lost to SEC teams.

All 6 of those teams could be considered among the top 10 teams in the country. And they all had to play several games against each other, because they're in an elite conference loaded with talent.

Other teams in top conferences have stretches of 6 to 8 games in a row in which they have to play top level teams.

Then, if they're fortunate enough to have a successful season, they have to play a conference championship game, which essentially amounts to one additional game against an elite team.

Notre Dame, thanks to their independent status, doesn't have to worry about that.

They can schedule their annual cakewalks against service academies and their "rivalry" with fellow Catholic school Boston College. They can use their other "rivalry" game against USC to pad their strength of schedule, and hope that no one notices that USC finished the season unranked and was one of the most overrated teams in the country.

They can play close games against mediocre teams like Purdue, Pitt, BYU, and Michigan, and still manage to default their way into the the National Championship game.

Let's ignore the fact that Georgia and Alabama were both far better teams, but had to play each other in the SEC Championship, essentially eliminating one of them.

If there was an 8-team playoff, Notre Dame would have gotten rolled by the #8 team, who would have been South Carolina, the 4th-best SEC team.

If you look at Notre Dame's recent bowl history, it's clear that they've benefited from their delusional (but large) fan base, and the fact that they haven't needed to actually win a conference to get into a BCS bowl.

Notre Dame has lost 11 of their last 13 bowl games.

They're 0-4 in BCS bowls (including last night's championship), and lost those 4 games by a combined score of 158-57.

That's right. Notre Dame has lost their 4 BCS bowl games by an average of 25 points per game.

Is there any doubt that they're being overrated and overhyped coming into bowl games?

The solution:

The NCAA should ban Notre Dame (and every other independent team, for fairness' sake) from bowl games until they join a conference.

It's absolutely insane that Notre Dame gets to play by a completely different set of rules than every other team, but still gets treated as if their undefeated record is just as impressive as another undefeated team.

Until the Irish have to go through a legitimate conference schedule and win a conference championship game, they'll continue to be placed in bowl games that they don't deserve. They'll continue to get blown out by teams that earned their bowl bid the hard way, and they'll steal BCS spots from far more deserving teams who had far more difficult roads to the postseason.

Until the NCAA forces Notre Dame's hand, fans will continue to suffer through these atrocities. It's simply not right, and fans deserve better.

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

I've been wanting the Irish to join a conference for a long time now. But look at it from their perspective.....why the **** would they?

TRADITION...

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Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

And they make MORE money, since there are now 7 (assuming eight teams) playoff games counting the championship, which is up from 5 possibly interesting bowl games right now.

Exactly.

The "lower" bowl games now become MORE important and watched.

It would lead to much bigger ratings (read: money.)

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Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

The logistics invovled with an 8 team playoff would be too much. That means 3 weekends. 3 Potential games for 2 teams....too much travel...fans wont travel for 3 games.....plus all the students, players, bands etc.........too much travel and scheduling.

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Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning:

Matt once made a very nice play in Seattle where he spun away from a pass rusher and hit Bowe off his back foot for a first down.